LIBERTY OF THE INDIANS IN THE
PHILIPPINES
Gregory XIV, Pope: In perpetual remembrance of the affair.
Since, as we have recently learned, in the first attempts to christianize the Indians of the Philippine Islands, so many dangers of life had to be undergone, on account of the savageness of these Indians, that many were constrained to take up arms against those Indians, and even to ravage their property; while subsequently, after the conversion of these Indians—who, abandoning their worship of false gods, now acknowledge the true God and profess the Catholic faith—those who formerly had ravaged their property now wish to make good what they destroyed, but are without the means of so doing: with the desire to provide for the peacefulness of conscience of the said persons, and thus to guard against all dangers and discomforts therein, by these presents, with our authority, we charge and command our venerable brother the bishop of Manila to have the above-named persons and the parties to whom restitution is to be made come to an agreement thereon among themselves, with satisfaction to be made to the owners wherever these are known. But where they are not known, then the same compensation is to be made
